ST. PAUL - Town of St. Paul residents can prepare themselves for what will likely be a three per cent tax increase this year.
During the April 11 Town of St. Paul meeting, CAO Steven Jeffery offered council members a budget briefing, as administration gets closer to completing this year's final budget.
Jeffery noted that there has been some positive news and some negative news, but ultimately, the municipality is still looking at a three pre cent tax increase to balance the budget.
“We’ve seen insurance costs increase,” said Jeffery, adding, some areas within the town's operations are already over their quarterly estimates.
The draft budget does include the retroactive pay for RCMP, which has a price tag of $327,835.
“We’ve seen assessment increase, which is very good news," said Jeffery, but even with a three per cent tax increase, the draft budget still shows a small deficit. A manager’s meeting was scheduled for Wednesday to further discuss budgets, said Jeffery.
Chief Financial Officer Mitchel Bachelet was also on hand during the council meeting, and noted there were a few things to consider in the budget, such as a decrease in anticipated revenue from the rental of facilities due to the number of requests being received.
Bachelet also acknowledged that the bill for retroactive RCMP pay "hurts."
While Jeffery said he does expect some small changes to take place over the next couple of weeks, administration is now in a position where it is very close to being able to present the final budget.
Mayor Maureen Miller said it might be prudent to schedule a special meeting to go over things once more.
“This is why we’re having a discussion around $700 banners," she said, referring to an earlier conversation in the same meeting about charging groups that want to have banners hung on main street lamp posts.
Both the draft operating and draft capital plans will be discussed an special meeting.
When it comes to the capital budget, there is funding for about $1 million worth of work, but the budget is showing $1.2 million in expenses, so priorities will need to be set.
“I do expect this document to be fairly fluid," said Jeffery. He added that he would personally be adding a project once he gathers information for a central security system for town facilities and properties.
In the end, the capital budget is “about $250,000 over on what we know we have an allocation for," said the CAO.
